2023-2024 University Catalog

May 19, 2024

2023-2024 University Catalog archived

Art and Art History (ARTH, ARTS)

Art and Art History

The Arts: The Department of Art and Art History offers majors in studio art and art history, and minors in art history, studio art, and cultural heritage and museum studies. Housed in Wilson Hall and located next to the Lenfest Center for the Arts, the department offers a wide range of courses for both majors and non-majors. Attractive classrooms and studios overlook Woods Creek. Regular exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, prints and photographs are held in the Staniar Gallery.

HONORS: Honors Programs in art history and studio art are offered for qualified students; see department head for details.

Department Head: Andrea Lepage

Faculty

First date is the year in which the faculty member began service as regular faculty at the University. Second date is the year of appointment to the present rank.

Leigh Ann Beavers, M.F.A—(2004)-2004
Instructor of Art
M.F.A., University of Wisconsin Madison

George R. Bent, Ph.D.—(1993)-2007
Sidney Gause Childress Professor of Art History
Ph.D., Stanford University

Christa Kreeger Bowden, M.F.A.—(2006)-2017
Professor of Art
M.F.A., University of Georgia

Wendy M. Castenell, Ph.D—(2022)-2022
Assistant Professor of Art History
Ph.D. University of Missouri

Sandy de Lissovoy, M.F.A.—(2019)-2019
Assistant Professor of Art
M.F.A. University of California, Irvine

Theodore van Loan, Ph.D—(2022)-2022
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History
Ph.D. Harvard University

Melissa Robin Kerin, Ph.D.—(2011)-2017
Associate Professor of Art History
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Elliott Haigh King, Ph.D.—(2012)-2018
Associate Professor of Art History
Ph.D., University of Essex

Andrea Lepage, Ph.D.—(2008)-2020
Pamela H. Simpson Professor of Art History
Ph.D., Brown University

Emma Steinkraus, M.F.A —(2022)-2022
Assistant Professor of Art
M.F.A. University of Iowa

NOTE: The studio art and art history courses are numbered according to the following schemes.

ARTH scheme
level	subject
100, survey	0, General/Ancient
200, period lecture	4, Asia
300, seminar (adv)	5, Europe to 1800
400, dir/indep work	6, Modern/America
	7, Latin America

ARTS scheme
level	subject
100, beginning	0, Criticism
200, middle	1, drawing & painting
300, advanced	2, photo & printing
400, dir/indep work	3, design & sculpture

Degrees/Majors/Minors

Major

Minor

• Art History minor
• Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies minor
• Studio Art minor

Courses

ARTH 101 - Survey of Western Art: Ancient to Medieval

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Chronological survey of Western art from the Paleolithic Age through the Middle Ages in Italy and Northern Europe. Examination of cultural and stylistic influences in the art and architecture of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Consideration of distinct interests of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Medieval Europe. Focus on major monuments and influential images produced up to circa 1400.

ARTH 102 - Survey of Western Art: Renaissance to the Present

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Chronological survey of Western art from the Renaissance through the present. Topics include the Renaissance, from its cultural and stylistic origins through the Mannerist movement; the Baroque and Rococo; the Neoclassical reaction; Romanticism and Naturalism; the Barbizon School and Realism; Impressionism and its aftermath; Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, and the Postmodern reaction to Modernism.

ARTH 125 - The Business of Contemporary Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

Same as BUS 125. This course combines finance, tax policy, marketing, economics, and art history to provide a ‘nuts-and-bolts’ view of how the contemporary art world operates. Appropriate for business students with an interest in contemporary art as well as museum studies and art history majors who wish to gain an understanding of business concepts in the art world, the course serves as preparation for students who may anticipate acquiring art for personal or business investment/use, serving on a museum board, pursuing employment in the art world, or advising high wealth clients on business matters related to art. Each topic begins with an overview of general principles before reviewing applications to the art world. For example, discussion of charitable giving covers the general tax rules of charitable deductions before discussing the specific rules related to art and museums. Additional course fee.

ARTH 130 - African American Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course focuses on the creative production, contemporary reception, and critical interpretation of African American art from the colonial period to the present. While visual representations of and by African Americans provide the content for this course, the broader issues they raise are applicable to images, objects, and structures from a variety of cultures and civilizations. Indeed, this course will engage at least three general themes central to art historical and visual cultural studies generally: 1. Cultural encounters within colonial contexts; 2. Constructions of “race” and “blackness” within African American art; and 3. Conceptualizations of “blackness” as it underpins “Modernism” in 20th-21st century.

ARTH 140 - Asian Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A survey of artistic traditions from South (including the Himalayan region), East, and Southeast Asia from roughly the 1st to the 18th centuries CE. The course focuses on a wide range of media - including architecture, sculpture, painting, textiles, and book arts - that serve a spectrum of religious and secular functions. The broad temporal, geographic, and topical scope of this course is meant to provide students with a basic understanding of not only the greatest artistic achievements and movements in Asia, but also the historical and political contexts that gave rise to these extraordinary pieces of art.

ARTH 141 - Buddhist Art of South and Central Asia

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course investigates the multivalent world of Buddhist art from South and Central Asia, particularly areas that now fall within the modern-day boundaries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, China, Tibet, and Nepal. We study the nascent forms of Buddhist imagery and its ritual functions from the Indo-Pak subcontinent, focus on monumental sculpture and cave architecture of Central Asia (Afghanistan and the Tarim Basin) and issues of iconoclasm, and study the art and iconography of the Himalayas, as well as current-day production and restoration practices of Tantric Buddhist art.

ARTH 146 - Introduction to Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies: Problems of Ownership and Curation

FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
Credits: 3

Cultural heritage objects are powerful artifacts to own, display, and even destroy. But why? This introductory course explores the ways art and cultural heritage objects have been stolen, laundered, purchased, curated, and destroyed in order to express political, religious, and cultural messages. Case studies and current events are studied equally to shed light on practices of looting and iconoclasm. Some of the questions we consider: What is the relationship between art and war? Under what conditions should museums return artifacts to the country/ethnic group from which the artifacts originated? What role do auction houses play in laundering art objects? What nationalist agendas are at work when cultural heritage objects are claimed by modem nation states or terrorist groups?

ARTH 170 - Arts of Mesoamerica and the Andes

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Survey of the art and architecture of Mesoamerica and the Andes before the arrival of the Europeans, with a focus on indigenous civilizations including the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca. Art is contextualized in terms of religious, social, political, and economic developments in each region under discussion. The class includes a trip to the Virginia Museum of fine Arts in Richmond or the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor.

ARTH 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: first-year student class standing. First-year seminar. Topics vary by term.

ARTH 195 - Special Topics in Art History

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3-4

Selected topics in art history with written and oral reports. May be repeated if topics are different.

ARTH 200 - Greek Art & Archaeology

CLAS 200 FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

An introduction to ancient Greek art and archaeology. We encounter some of the greatest works of art in human history, as we survey the development of painting, sculpture, architecture, and town planning of the ancient Greeks. We encounter the history of the people behind the objects that they left behind, from the material remains of the Bronze Age palaces and Classical Athenian Acropolis to the world created in the wake of Alexander the Great’s conquests. We also consider how we experience the ancient Greek world today through archaeological practice, cultural heritage, and the antiquities trade.

ARTH 204 - Art Works: Careers for Art Majors and Minors

Credits: 1

Same as ARTS 204. This one-credit course prepares Art and Art History students to find internships and jobs. It assesses students’ abilities and skills, provides resources about a variety of industries that majors pursue, helps students develop professional development tools, coaches them through mock interviews and networking, and showcases how to search and apply for internships and post-graduate opportunities.

ARTH 209 - History of Western Architecture

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A survey of Western architecture, including material from the ancient world to the 20th century, addressing the major traditions of architectural visual culture and practice. The course investigates the ways in which architecture has been designed to frame the significant socio-religious and political contexts of historical cultures.

ARTH 211 - Islamic Art and Architecture

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This survey course introduces the art and architecture of the Islamic world from the origins of Islam in the 7th Century C.E. to the present day. Students will develop analytical and conceptual tools through rigorous engagement with a diverse set of buildings, artworks, and relevant textual sources (all available in English translation). Lectures will emphasize a diversity of methodological approaches to the visual traditions of the Islamic World, while also critically engaging with the field’s complicated status within the History of Art.

ARTH 212 - Islamic Art and Architecture: The First 400 Years

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

The 7th Century CE/1st Century AH was a time of great political, cultural, and religious change in Eurasia. Amid a power vacuum created by conflict between warring Byzantium and Sasanian Iran, a polity emerged, drawing authority from a new faith, Islam. For the subsequent 400 years following the initial Islamic conquest, a series of Caliphates sponsored the construction of vast urban spaces, monuments, mosques, palaces, and other structures, some of which have remained in continuous use since. Alongside this, patronage of the visual arts more broadly including manuscripts, ivories, metalwork, and other media also thrived. The course will consider how this artistic and architectural output came to define Islamic Art as a visual tradition and as an academic discipline. It will do so by tracing artistic developments across the early Islamic world, ranging from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

ARTH 214 - The Art History of the Qur’an

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

Shortly after its revelation in the 7th Century, the Qur’an became an object of aesthetic and artistic attention. This class will explore the art historical development of Quranic manuscripts, architectural inscriptions, calligraphy, and other examples from the 7th century to the present day. Visits to the Special Collections department at Leyburn Library and to the American Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC will provide hands on experience with a number of Qur’an manuscripts.

ARTH 216 - Nature Through Many Lenses: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of the More-than-Human World

ARTS 216 FDR: HA
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

In this class we will explore how different artistic traditions have interfaced with the natural world. Team-taught by an art historian and a painter, the class includes diverse projects drawn from both disciplines. Each week is structured around a different art historical tradition. We will study depictions of the natural world in Arab, Persian, and Mughal painting traditions, Japanese byobu screens, women’s contributions to European scientific illustration, and Hudson River School plein-air painting. These units will blend art historical lectures, discussions, readings, and research with related studio art exercises. Studio art activities will include workshops on miniature painting, gold leaf, cyanotypes, botanical illustration, and painting from life outdoors. The class will also include a field trip to the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, VA, to visit their rare books library, artist-in-residence program, and gardens. The term will culminate in a collaborative exhibition for students to present both their art works and art historical contexts for their work.

ARTH 230 - Harlem Renaissance Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

The Harlem Renaissance, also referred to as the New Negro Movement, stands as a towering and defining cultural moment in 20th-century American history. It was in some respects the period in which African American artists, writers, poets and others tabled bold new agendas for the ways in which they, as individuals, and as a nation-within-a-nation, might advance in what was to become the American century. This class will consider the multiple factors that gave rise to this astonishing and compelling cultural moment. The mixed results of the reconstruction era; the Great Migration, which saw very large numbers of African Americans move from the South to other parts of the country, namely the West coast and the great northern industrial centers; the defining contribution of Howard Professor Alain Locke, and so on. The class will also look at the variety of cultural expressions and artistic practices emerging out of the new epicenter of Black American life, Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance is of course something of a misnomer. It was not limited to Harlem, but in effect took place in many different parts of the US, from San Francisco to Chicago. Furthermore, it was perhaps a cultural birth, as much as it was a cultural rebirth, hence the important differentiation between the New Negro and the Old predecessor. Setting the Harlem Renaissance into a multiplicity of contexts, from African American art practices of the 19th century, to the reception African Americans received in European cities such as Paris, the class will be hugely informative, not just on what African American artists were doing in the early 20th century, but also the ways in which so many of today’s debates and questions on race matters in the US can be traced back to what was happening in the country a century ago.

ARTH 240 - Arts of China

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This broad-based investigation of Chinese art from the Neolithic period to the present examines a wide spectrum of media: painting, illustrated scrolls, architecture, ceramics, and sculpture. This general survey will be paired with single-focused analyses of materials, issues, and genres particular to Chines art, such as the use of jade, development of ceramics, lore of calligraphy, and tradition of landscape painting. To this end, we use objects from the W&L Special Collections.

ARTH 241 - The Arts of Japan

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This survey of Japanese art, which includes material from protohistoric times to the 20th century, is structured chronologically with lectures addressing seminal artistic developments and movements throughout Japan’s history. Central to this course is an investigation of the ways in which Japan’s dynamic socio-political contexts shaped its religious and political artistic developments.

ARTH 242 - Arts of India

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course explores the artistic traditions of India from the earliest extant material evidence of the Indus Valley Civilization (circa 2500 BCE) to the elaborate painting and architectural traditions of the Mughal period (circa 16th - 18th centuries). The course analyzes the religious and ritual uses of temples, paintings, and sculptures, as well as their political role in expressing imperial ideologies.

ARTH 243 - Imaging Tibet

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

An examination of images and imaging practices of the early 1900s to the present in order to define and analyze the ways in which both Western and Asian (particularly Tibetan and Chinese) artists have imagined Tibet and its people.

ARTH 245 - Ancient Cultures, New Markets: Modern and Contemporary Asian Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course examines the art movements of the last one hundred years from India, China, Tibet, and Japan primarily through the lenses of the larger sociopolitical movements that informed much of Asia’s cultural discourses: Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, Socialism, Communism, and Feminism. We also address debates concerning non-Western 20th-century art as peripheral to the main canons of Modern and Contemporary art. By the end of the course, students have created a complex picture of Asian art/artists, and have engaged broader concepts of transnationalism, as well as examined the roles of galleries, museums, and auction houses in establishing market value and biases in acquisition practices. Meets simultaneously with ARTH 394B-01. Students may not register or receive credit for both.

ARTH 253 - Medieval Art in Southern Europe

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Examination of the art and culture of Italy and Greece from the rise of Christianity to the first appearance of bubonic plague in 1348. Topics include early Christian art and architecture; Byzantine imagery in Ravenna and Constantinople during the Age of Justinian; iconoclasm; mosaics in Greece, Venice and Sicily; sculpture in Pisa; and the development of panel and fresco painting in Rome, Florence, Siena and Assisi.

ARTH 254 - Medieval Art in Northern Europe

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Survey of the art of France, Spain, Germany, and the British Isles from circa 700 to circa 1400. Discussions include Carolingian and Ottonian painting and architecture, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, and French cathedral design and decoration during the Romanesque and Gothic periods.

ARTH 255 - Northern Renaissance Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A survey of Northern painting from 1300 to 1600, examined as symbols of political, religious, and social concerns of painters, patrons, and viewers. Among the artists covered are Campin, van Eyck, van der Weyden, Durer, Holbein, and Brueghel. Emphasis placed on interpretation of meaning and visual analysis.

ARTH 256 - Italian Renaissance Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Survey of the art and architecture of Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries. The course focuses on innovations of the Early, High, and Late Renaissance through the work of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Alberti, Leonardo, Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Images are considered as exponents of contemporary political, social, and religious events and perceptions.

ARTH 257 - Dutch Arts, Patrons, and Markets

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

During the 17th century, the practices of making and buying art boomed as never before in the Dutch Republic. With the creation of the first large-scale open art market, prosperous Dutch merchants, artisans, and civil servants bought paintings and prints in unprecedented numbers. Dutch 17th-century art saw the rise of new subjects, and landscapes, still lifes, and scenes of daily life replaced religious images and scenes from classical mythology. Portraiture also flourished in this prosperous atmosphere.

ARTH 258 - Baroque and Rococo Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A survey of the art and architecture that focuses on the stylistic and ideological issues shaping western Europe during 17th and 18th centuries.

ARTH 261 - History of Photography

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

An art-historical introduction to the history of photography, from its origins in the 19th century to the present day. Lectures and discussions examine photography’s aesthetic, documentary, and scientific purposes; important contributors to photography and its history; the evolution of the camera and related technical processes; and issues of photographic theory and criticism. Photography is considered as a medium with its own rich history - bearing in mind stylistic shifts and changes in subject matter related to aesthetic, social, and cultural concerns - but also as a key component in the wider narrative of modern art.

ARTH 262 - 19th-Century European Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course begins in the late 18th century and covers major European art movements and criticism up to c.1900. Topics include the art of the French Revolution as an instrument of propaganda; the rise of Romanticism; the advent and impact of early photography; and the aesthetic and ideological origins of Modern Art.

ARTH 263 - 20th-Century European Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course covers major European art movements and criticism from the late 19th century through the 20th century. Lectures and discussions explore the implications of what it means for art to be/appear modern,” the social and aesthetic goals of the early avant-garde, the “rise and fall” of abstraction, and artistic responses to post-war mass culture. Movements discussed include Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and New Realism.”

ARTH 264 - Surrealism

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Surrealism was one of the most multi-faceted and influential intellectual movements of the 20th century with a legacy and practice that continues today. This seminar examines the key writings and ideas that underlie surrealism with a focus on its artistic practice. We will consider works by artists including Salvador DalÃ, RenÃ© Magritte, and Max Ernst; watch surrealist films; discuss the significance of dreams; and play surrealist games of chance.

ARTH 266 - American Art to 1945

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A survey of painting and sculpture in the United States from its earliest settlement to about 1945. Lectures and discussions emphasize the English eastern seaboard development in the 17th and 18th centuries, though other geographical areas are included in the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics include art of the early colonies, the Hudson River School, Realism and Regionalism, and the reception of abstract art in the United States.

ARTH 267 - Art Since 1945

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course introduces students to art and art theory from 1945 to the present. The objectives of the course are: (1) to enhance student knowledge of the major works, artists, and movements of art in Europe and the United States since 1945; (2) to integrate these works of art within the broader social and intellectual history of the period; and (3) to help students develop their skills in visual analysis and historical interpretation. Among the issues we examine are the politics of abstract art; the ongoing dialogue between art and mass culture; the differences between modernism and postmodernism; and contemporary critiques of art history’s prevailing narratives. This is a lecture course with a heavy emphasis on in-class discussion.

ARTH 268 - Modern Art in Barcelona

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

Spanning the years 1888 to 1939, a period bookended by the Barcelona Universal Exposition and the end of the Spanish Civil War, this course provides a firsthand look at the artists, architects, and designers who defined Catalan modern art in the late-19th and early 20thcentury. Students will study the aesthetic and socio-political circumstances of the ‘Renaixança;’ ‘Noucentisme;’ and the young artists who merged to define modern European art - famous names that include Picasso, Miró, and Dalí. We will then turn to the national capital, Madrid, to visit some of these artist’s most celebrated artworks. Anticipated site visits during our abroad experience include Gaudí’s Palau Güell, Casa Batlló, the Fundació Joan Miró, the Fudació Gala-Salvador Dalí, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina.

ARTH 271 - Arts of Colonial Latin America

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A survey of the art and architecture of Latin America from the 16th through 18th centuries. This course begins with an exploration of the art of the Aztec, Maya, Inca, and Spanish before cultural contact. Classes then explore the cultural convergence that resulted from the European military and spiritual conquest in the 16th century, focusing on the role of indigenous artists and traditions in the formation of early colonial culture. Later lectures consider the rise of nationalism and its effect on the arts. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor.

ARTH 274 - Art and Revolution: Mexican Muralism

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A survey of public monumental art produced by Mexican artists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros in Mexico and the United States from 1910 to the 1970s. Lectures focus on art that promotes social ideals and the role that art played in building a new national consciousness in Mexico. Students also examine the impact of Mexican muralism throughout Latin America and the United States. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor.

ARTH 275 - Community Muralism: The Art of Public Engagement

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

Same as ARTS 275. Our nation is currently witnessing a community mural renaissance. Public murals help to create welcoming and inclusive public spaces, build and solidify community identity, commemorate individuals or events, arouse social consciousness or impact social change, and recognize the voices of traditionally disempowered groups. During the term, we trace the historical development of community murals. Students participate in studio exercises that give them experience with a variety of methods, materials, and techniques necessary to plan, design, and produce a largescale community mural. We produce and document a mural in collaboration with a local community partner.

ARTH 276 - Chicana/o Art and Muralism: From the Street to the (Staniar) Gallery

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

This class examines the process by which Chicana/o artists have garnered public attention and respect, taking their artworks from the peripheries of the art world to museum and gallery spaces. Using the half-mile long mural entitled The Great Wall of Los Angeles as a connecting thread, this class considers the broad theme of identity creation and transformation as expressed by Chicana/o artists from the 1970s to the present. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor. Open to all students.

ARTH 288 - Chinese Export Porcelain and the China Trade, 1500 to 1900

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course covers the development and history of Chinese export porcelain made for the European and American markets and its role as a commodity in the China Trade. Students examine Chinese export porcelain from several different perspectives, including art history, material culture, and economic history.

ARTH 295 - Special Topics in Art History

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3-4

Selected topics in art history with written and oral reports. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

ARTH 302 - Between Things and Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

In the West, we are used to knowing what art is - grandiose paintings, monumental sculptures, and delicate drawings, all housed in stately museums. But is that characterization of art relevant any longer? This course investigates other ways that art can be understood, pulling from a variety of theoretical and historical contexts. We discuss broader interdisciplinary concepts and dig more deeply into specific historical contexts in order to consider what can make things significant.

ARTH 311 - Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Neocolonialism and the Study of Art in the Middle East

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

How does the study of art and architectural history interface with colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial structures of power? This is a pressing question for those who study the visual cultures of the Middle East, a region in which these power structures have had considerable impact historically as well as in the contemporary moment. This class will consider from theoretical and practical vantage points how colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial systems and institutions have governed or influenced the methods of study, scope, and modes of display of historical art from the Middle East. Topics will include colonial-era collection and museum practices, Orientalism and its critics, post-colonial nationalist discourses and art history, cultural heritage in and during the ‘wars on terror’, and visual discourses of contemporary Islamophobia.

ARTH 342 - Love, Loyalty, and Lordship: Court Art of India, 1500s to1800s

FDR: HA
Credits: 3

During the 16th-19th centuries, India’s Hindu and Islamic courts, as well as British imperial forces, vied for political authority and control over the subcontinent. Despite the political and economic volatility of the time, the regional courts commissioned spectacular secular and religious arts in the form of illustrated narratives, miniature paintings, and architectural masterpieces. This course focuses on this rich artistic heritage. As we analyze the courts’ painted and built environments, we investigate three recurring themes: love (of court, God and, in some cases, an individual); loyalty (to courtly values, religious ideals, and ruler); and lordship (over land, animals, and people).

ARTH 343 - Art and Material Culture of Tibet

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Through a chronological presentation of sites and objects, we study Tibet’s great artistic movements from the 7th-20th centuries. Our analyses of the art and material culture of Tibet, and its larger cultural zone, has an art historical and historiographic focus. This two-pronged approach encourages students to analyze not only the styles and movements of Tibetan art, but the methods by which this art world has been studied by and simultaneously presented to Western audiences.

ARTH 347 - Forget Me Not: Visual Culture of Historic and Religious Memorials

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

This class analyzes the visual material of memorial sites that shape social identity. Whether simple or elaborate in their construction, these creations allow people the space to connect with and/or honor a person or event from the historic or even mythological past. This global and thematic examination of memorials considers three primary foci: the built environment of a memorial; the performative role of visitors; and the function of memory at these sites. No prerequisites. Appropriate for students of all class years.

ARTH 350 - Medieval Art in Italy

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Art and architecture of the Italian peninsula, from circa 1200 to 1400. This seminar addresses issues of patronage, artistic training and methods of production, iconography, and the function of religious and secular imagery. Topics of discussion include the construction of Tuscan cathedrals and civic buildings; sculpture in Siena, Pisa, and Rome; and painting in Assisi, Padua, and Florence.

ARTH 354 - The Early Renaissance in Italy

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Examination of the intellectual, cultural, and artistic movements dominant in Florence between ca. 1400 and ca. 1440. Images and structures produced by Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Donatello, and Fra Angelico are considered within the context of Florentine social traditions and political events.

ARTH 355 - The High Renaissance in Italy

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTH 256 This seminar addresses issues of patronage, artistic production, criticism and art theory, and the uses and abuses of images during the High Renaissance. Works by Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Bramante are considered as emblems of larger cultural movements popular in Italian courts between 1470 and 1520.

ARTH 356 - Science in Art: Technical Examination of 17th-Century Dutch Paintings

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: instructor consent. A survey of 17th-century Dutch history, art history, politics, religion, economics, etc., which links the scientific analysis of art to the art and culture of the time. The course begins on campus and then history, etc., will occur for a few days in Lexington and then proceed to Center for European Studies, Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands. Students visit numerous museums, hear guest lectures from faculty at Universiteit Maastricht, and observe at conservation laboratories at some of the major Dutch art museums. Students are graded by their performance on two research projects involving presentations and journals. Though students are not required to learn a world language to participate in the program, they are expected to learn key phrases in Dutch as a matter of courtesy to citizens of the host country. Spring Term Abroad course.

ARTH 360 - History and Theory of Photography

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This seminar investigates the invention and development of photography in Europe and the United States—from its inception in the first half of the nineteenth century to its transformation in the Modernist period. The course examines contemporary developments and ongoing theorization of the field of photography, broadly defined. Course material and discussions consider historical debates surrounding photography as an art form and engage questions of aesthetics, artistic agency, and popular culture.

ARTH 364 - Seminar on Art of the 1960s

FDR: HA
Credits: 3

An exploration of the art produced during the decade of the 1960s. A seminal period, it includes Pop Art, Post-Painterly Abstraction, Minimalism, and socially conscious and politically oriented art reflecting feminism and black radicalism. Emphasis is placed not only on the major artistic currents of the period but also on the broader cultural reflections of these movements. .

ARTH 365 - Women, Art, and Empowerment

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This seminar explores female artists from the late 18th century through the present, whose depictions of women have directly challenged the value system in art history that has traditionally privileged white heterosexual male artists, audiences, collectors, historians, curators, etc. Lectures, discussions, and research projects address multicultural perspectives and provide a sense of feminism’s global import in a current and historical context.

ARTH 366 - African-American Art Seminar

FDR: HA
Credits: 3

An exploration of the art produced by African-Americans from the Colonial period to the present. Weekly lectures, readings, essays, films and discussion.

ARTH 378 - Border Art: Contemporary U.S. Latinx Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This seminar engages broad-ranging debates that have looked at the Mexico-US border as a fruitful site of identity formation. In this seminar, we examine artworks with an emphasis on location, critical standpoint, interrelatedness, and the geopolitics of identity. Through readings and class discussions, students investigate protest art and arts activism. Students develop methods of critical seeing through image analysis, art historical analysis, and cultural critique. We consider artworks produced by Chicanx, U.S. Latinx, and other transnational artists in a wide range of formats including printmaking, performance art, mural painting, photography, film and video, books, comics, public art projects, and an array of post-conceptual practices. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor.

ARTH 383 - Digital Florence

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

This course invites students to participate in and contribute to the Digital Humanities project Florence As It Was: The Digital Reconstruction of a Medieval City. We consider how the built environment of Florence influenced–and was in turn influenced by–the culture, society, art, and history of the city. Students learn to translate historical, scholarly analysis into visually accessible formats, and collaborate on the “Florence As It Was” project, contributing to the digital mapping, data visualization, and virtual-reality reconstruction of medieval Florence.

ARTH 385 - Leonardo da Vinci: Art, Science and Innovation in Renaissance Europe

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

Leonardo da Vinci has for years been considered the consummate “Renaissance Man,” equally skilled as a painter, anatomist, engineer, and military scientist. This course examines the contextual background from which this true genius was sprung, the works he produced, the people for whom he produced them, and the visions of the artist both realized and unrealized that have captured the imaginations of people around the world since Leonardo’s death in 1519.

ARTH 394 - Seminar in Art History

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Research in selected topics in art history with written and oral reports. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

ARTH 395 - Senior Seminar: Approaches to Art History

Credits: 3

This capstone seminar studies the origins, applications, strengths, and weaknesses of various methodological approaches that art historians use to study art. Topics include Formalism; Iconography and Iconology; Social History and Marxism; Feminism; Psychoanalysis; Semiotics; Structuralism and Post-Structuralism; Deconstruction; Reception Theory; Post-Colonialism; and Critical Race/Ethnicity Theories.

ARTH 398 - Seminar in Museum Studies

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: ARTH 102 or ARTH 140 This seminar explores the history, development, and practical aspects of museums and considers museum practices of the present and the future. Topics of discussion include museum administration, collections management, exhibition planning, interpretation and storytelling, and museum education. Students collaborate to produce an exhibition, and gain skills in developing a master plan, concept development, design, installation, label writing, and evaluation. The course may include field trips to regional museums. Additional course fee required, for which the student is responsible after Friday of the 7th week of winter term.

ARTH 401 - Directed Individual Study

Credits: 1

Prerequisite: instructor consent. Individual or class study of special topics in art history. Permission of the department required. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

ARTH 402 - Directed Individual Study

Credits: 2

Prerequisite: instructor consent. Individual or class study of special topics in art history. Permission of the department required. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

ARTH 403 - Directed Individual Study

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: instructor consent. Individual or class study of special topics in art history. Permission of the department required. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

ARTH 453 - Internship in Arts Management

Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: instructor consent. Supervised experience in an art gallery, art dealership, museum, or auction house approved by the Art and Art History Department. Requires written exercises and readings, in addition to curatorial projects devised in advance by the instructor and student. May be repeated for credit. May be carried out during the summer.

ARTH 473 - Senior Thesis

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: senior class standing. Corequisite: ARTH 395 - Senior Seminar: Approaches to Art History An art history thesis. A thesis abstract with a written statement of the objective must be presented in the spring of the junior year. The Art History faculty will evaluate all thesis proposals within three weeks to determine the student’s preparedness and the project’s validity, designating each as a ‘Pass,’ ‘Provisional Pass’ (requiring resubmission of proposal), or ‘Re-direction’ (to a 300-level seminar or independent study). Student writing a thesis will be recognized at the baccalaureate department awards ceremony. Application to write a thesis must be made by May 1 of the junior year. Accepted students may begin their research over the summer and should plan to submit an updated proposal on September 20 of fall term. Honors will be determined based on the quality of writing and inquiry in March of the senior year.

ARTH 483 - Senior Thesis

Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 3

Continuation of ARTH 473. Students continue to research, write, and revise the senior thesis project. All students will present their work to faculty, students, and other members of the community in March. Honors will be determined based on the quality of writing and inquiry in March of the senior year. Students writing a thesis will be recognized at the baccalaureate department awards ceremony.

ARTH 493 - Honors Thesis

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: instructor consent. Corequisite: ARTH 395 - Senior Seminar: Approaches to Art History An art history thesis. The culmination is an oral defense of the thesis project. Students achieving honors will be recognized at the baccalaureate department awards ceremony and in the university graduation program. Students should enroll in ARTH 493 only after honors candidacy has been determined by the Art History faculty. Art History major and senior class standing.

ARTS 111 - Drawing I

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Development of skills and visual awareness through the study of the basic elements of drawing. Variety of media, including pencil, charcoal, ink and crayon. Lab fee required.

ARTS 112 - Drawing II

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 111 Continuation of Drawing I. Lab fee required.

ARTS 115 - Contemporary Practice in Drawing

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

An introduction to the basic skills of observational drawing through daily drawing practice. Parallel instruction in contemporary and historical drawing will include discussion, writing assignments and image presentations. Students may earn credit for either ARTS 111 or ARTS 115, but not both. Lab fee required.

ARTS 120 - Photography I

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

An introduction to the methods and materials of photography, with an emphasis on composition, exposure, and light. The course includes a combination of image presentations, technical demonstrations, studio instruction, and group critiques. Lab fee required; cameras are available for check-out.

ARTS 121 - Light Studies and Optical Culture

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Light and optics are the fundamental elements of photographic media and of contemporary media culture. This foundational course introduces students to the formal characteristics of light and lenses by surveying a variety of image-making practices, from primitive photographic devices to digital photography and video. Through a combination of classroom talks and hands-on projects, students encounter principles of black-and-white and color photography, as well as learning camera controls that open up a wide range of expressive possibilities. Historical antecedents, contemporary practices, and strategies of critical interpretation are discussed in relation to specific assignments throughout the term. Lab fee required.

ARTS 131 - Design I

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

An introduction to the elements and concepts of two-dimensional design within the context of current digital technology, with an emphasis on contemporary computer software programs.

ARTS 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: first-year student class standing. First-year seminar. Topics vary by term.

ARTS 204 - Art Works: Careers for Art Majors and Minors

Credits: 1

Same as ARTH 204. This one-credit course prepares Art and Art History students to find internships and jobs. It assesses students’ abilities and skills, provides resources about a variety of industries that majors pursue, helps students develop professional development tools, coaches them through mock interviews and networking, and showcases how to search and apply for internships and post-graduate opportunities.

ARTS 211 - Figure Drawing I

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 111 or ARTS 115. Drawing from the human figure using a variety of media. Lab fee required.

ARTS 212 - Figure Drawing II

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 211 Continuation of ARTS 211 with emphasis on the use of the human figure as a compositional element. Lab fee required.

ARTS 213 - Drawing Italy

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: ARTS 111 Living and drawing on site in Rome, Florence, Umbria, and Tuscany and with day trips to Pompeii, Assisi, and other important art sites in Italy. Students explore Italy’s vast artistic heritage within its cultural context, then apply this experience to their own art while working in the distinctive Mediterranean light. Media include pen and ink, pastel and acrylic. Lab fee required.

ARTS 214 - Drawing from the Environment

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: ARTS 111 This intensive, place-based drawing course allows students to practice drawing skills, encourages students to think about the conceptual content of drawings, and requires students to produce a series of drawing projects informed and constrained by a specific natural environment. The class includes instruction on the environmental context of our course location, including instruction in the ecology, natural history, and geology. Nearly all of the course occurs outside. Image presentations, readings and discussions about place-based and site-oriented art provide a conceptual foundation.

ARTS 215 - Creating Comics

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: ARTS 111 or WRIT 100. Same as ENGL 215. A course which is both a creative-writing and a studio-art course. Students study graphic narratives as an art form that combines image-making and storytelling, producing their own multi-page narratives through the writing of images. The course includes a theoretical overview of the comics form, using a range of works as practical models.

ARTS 216 - Nature Through Many Lenses: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of the More-than-Human World

ARTH 216 FDR: HA
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

ARTS 217 - Painting I

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Emphasis on color, design and spatial relationships. Work from observation and imagination in oil and acrylic. Lab fee required.

ARTS 218 - Painting II

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 217. Continuation of ARTS 217. Lab fee required.

ARTS 219 - Painted Light: Interpreting the Landscape

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: ARTS 217. This course begins with the introduction of en plein air , a French expression which means “in the open air” and is used to describe the act of painting outdoors. We examine artists who have worked en plein air , past and present, study their work and methods, and then apply this knowledge to painting outdoors. Emphasis is on the way light and color define form and space. Students build on their knowledge of color theory through observation and implementation. Beginning with the concept of plein air, we quickly branch out to more interpretive and subjective uses of the landscape in painting, resulting in a cohesive body of work. Lab fee required.

ARTS 220 - Photography II

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 120 or ARTS 121 Intermediate study of the methods and materials of fine art photography, explored through analog film and hybrid practices. Approaches for editing, sequencing, and presentation are investigated. The course includes a combination of demonstrations, studio projects, and group critiques, as well as image presentations, readings, and discussions. Lab fee required; cameras are available for check-out.

ARTS 221 - Antique Photographic Processes

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 120 or ARTS 121 An exploration of 19th-century photographic processes within the context of the history of photography. Individual processes are learned through studio demonstration and intensive hands-on lab sessions. Processes covered in this course include salt printing, cyanotype, Van Dyke, kallitype, and platinum and palladium printing and toning, as well as wet plate collodion processes such as tintypes and ambrotypes. Students learn how to make enlarged digital negatives for contact printing from photographs that originate in either film or digital formats. In addition to technique, students learn the historical background of each process, as well as contemporary trends and artists working with these methods.

ARTS 222 - Paris: History, Image, Myth, Part I

FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: instructor consent. The history of Paris in the modern era is intimately linked to the history of photography, an artistic medium born out of the intellectual and cultural ferment of the nineteenth century. This interdisciplinary course, taught in conjunction with HIST 207, examines both the history of Paris and the city’s long photographic tradition. We cover how photography offers insight into the shaping of Paris in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as how the medium has been transformed by the changing landscape of the city. This course is the prerequisite for the spring course, ARTS 223. Students may not take this course and HIST 207.

ARTS 223 - Paris: History, Image, Myth

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: instructor consent. Participants in this course spend four weeks in Paris asking the following questions: how can photography capture Parisian life and Parisian spaces to document a sense of place? How can we use photography to observe the city’s changing landscape as well as understand its rich past? Indeed, how has photography-the development of which is closely tied to Paris’ history-altered the fabric of the city? Numerous museum and gallery visits will also play an important role in our time in Paris. Students may not take this course and HIST 210. ARTS 120 is recommended as a prerequisite.

ARTS 224 - Color Photography

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 120 or ARTS 121 An exploration of the visual and technical principles of color photography, as applied through digital and hybrid approaches. Students learn the concepts of color photography through demonstrations, studio projects, and group critiques, as well as image presentations, readings, and discussions of artists and trends in contemporary color photography. Lab fee required; cameras are available for check-out.

ARTS 225 - The Cyanotype Process

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 120 or ARTS 121 Discovered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, the cyanotype (blueprint) process is an iron-based process that produces an intense deep blue when exposed to UV light such as sunlight. In this course, students will create cyanotypes in all shapes and sizes using found materials, stencils, and digital negatives on materials ranging from paper to fabric. Students will also learn the science and history of the cyanotype and how it has been used by photographers and artists from the 19th through today.

ARTS 226 - Introduction to the Book Arts

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A creative exploration of the tradition of the handmade book. Students learn to make several styles of binding, including accordion books, pamphlets, and Japanese bindings, developing some skill in letterpress printing, paper decorating, and simple printmaking techniques to create original handmade books. Readings, discussions, and slide lectures introduce students to the ingenious history of books and printing. Besides constructing imaginative, individual book art projects, students create one collaborative project. Lab fee required.

ARTS 227 - Printmaking I

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

A survey of fine art printmaking media, with emphasis on beginning techniques and the artistic potential of the print. Media include a selection of techniques from intaglio, relief, and planographic printmaking.

ARTS 228 - Printmaking II

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 227 Continuation of Printmaking I, with emphasis on one of the major media of printmaking (intaglio, relief, lithography). Students gain experience both with technique and the creative ability to solve visual problems and present compelling images in two dimensions.

ARTS 229 - Observing Ireland’s Coastal Biomes

(BIOL 229) FDR: HA
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: Prerequisites: BIOL 111 or ARTS 111 or instructor consent. Coastal regions offer a rich opportunity to experience a variety of biotic communities, from marine tidal communities to coastal plant and animal communities. In this course, students explore the biodiversity and ecology of these communities through readings, lectures, and traditional field observation/drawing. Observational drawing has a longstanding and important connection to studies of natural history and taxonomy and provides an ideal tool for understanding, appreciating and identifying the specific details of plants, animals, and their contextual environments. A place-based learning framework will provide insight into current environmental challenges and opportunities. Students spend Spring Term on the Atlantic (west) coast of Ireland, visiting coastal biomes and the biologically and historically unique Burren, a glacial karst landscape.

ARTS 231 - Introductory Sculpture: Materials and Methods

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

An introduction to sculpture techniques, tools and materials. Developing skills in working with wood, metal, clay, as well as new media technologies. Lab fee required.

ARTS 232 - Intermediate Sculpture: Expanded Material Practice

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ARTS 231 or ARTS 236. Students broaden their understanding of what sculpture can be through projects that materialize memory and imagine new futures. Emphasis is on studio projects in wood, metal, fabric, and non-traditional materials, responding to the ways contemporary sculpture pushes at the edges of what defines it. The course compels students to add significant experience in materializing sculptural projects while deepening perceptions of their own practices. Lab fee required.

ARTS 233 - Eco Art

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course treads on the uncharted territory that lies between contemporary art practices and environmental activism, thus redefining cultural norms about the objectives and potential instrumental values of contemporary art. Eco artists replace conventional art store supplies with living plants and microbes, mud and feathers, electronic transmissions and digital imagery, temperature and wind. Through artworks and artists working within the vast scope of environmental concerns. students learn about energy, waste, climate change, technology, sustainability, etc., as well as about creative ecological processes and the relationships between materials, tools, and ecosystems.

ARTS 234 - Permasculpture

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

This course is designed to appropriate the principles of sustainable agriculture (permaculture) into the field of environmental installation. Through the process of designing an environmental sculptural system, the entire ecology of the environment is taken into account, including the flora and fauna, the community, and any other defining feature of the chosen location. Students propose and realize a project that integrates collaborative partnerships with the community and the natural environment, while experiencing all stages of production of an outdoor sculptural installation: the research, the design, the partnerships, and all aspects of the fabrication process. Lab fee required.

ARTS 236 - Land and Passage

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

This course demonstrates how sculpture can be expanded to include places, passing through places, ecology, and ephemeral installations. Students will develop art processes to articulate a variety of human relationships with environmental sites, and more generally, the exterior. We will study historical and contemporary examples of sculpture and art practices that utilize visual arts to express the complexities of environmental subjects. The course will include projects to develop an expanded definition of sculpture by investigating local geography, regarding comparative sites as subjects, reviewing material history, and considering the ways that passage through local places can constitute both form and meaning. Course work includes readings, in-class discussions, research, and creating projects using traditional and found materials.

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